THE HISTORY OF V.A.R.M.S The Annual Diary 1990 - 2009

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model, obviously watching all this with glee, continues circling overhead, exactly where their
pursuers can't see it. Who's having all the fun now? By now it up about 300 feet.
Down H. S. R. to the lights and Cathies Lane. Turn left to go north. We'll get ahead and
wait for it" says Geoff, from experience. More traffic! Out of line of sight for a while, then Geoff
jumps out again to observe carefully. "A good flight, this one", he thinks, checking his reliable
wrist stopwatch to be sure it's still recording the time. The model comes briefly into sight again at
the 20 minute mark, then still with pursuers ahead of it, disappears once more due to obstructions
caused by houses and trees. It appears once again and is visibly estimated at about 400 feet, still
climbing serenely, but abruptly vanishes into a nasty looking grey cloud. Great shock and
disappointment! 15 years old and it had been a superb glider. Hundreds of flights and best model,
usually saved for safe, non-thermal conditions: hence its' long life! Another one 'gone to God", as
Tony Cincotta would have said.
"Ah", you'll think. "There must be more. The words aren't finished yet". Of course, you're
right. After nearly 2 weeks - and on the very day a certain gentleman in Wantirna South was about
to insert better part of the lost model into his council dustbin - the Pentlands received a phone call
from a friendly stranger, the aforesaid gentleman’s' next-door neighbour. She had found in her
garden a wing with a telephone number on it, a relic from the wreck. In the nick of time the greater
part of the model (by now considerably exposed to the elements) was retrieved from next-door and,
with some generous help, arrangements were made to collect the sorry looking chuckie, which had
now paid dearly for having a mind of its own.
With the owner now at the crash site, and having made friends with the finders, a little
detective work on the pieces indicated the all-wooden glider had been flying along steadily at its
normal glide angle, but had collided solidly with the brickwork of a double-story house. This had
caused the fuselage, tail and half a wing to thump onto a much lower Colorbond roof as the other
half of the wing fluttered next door. It seems almost everyone in the neighbourhood heard the
bang! Judging by the height of the model as it vanished into the cloud and its final resting place, it
had probably flown about 45 minutes from only a throw - and without radio.
The post mortem? Fortunately no harm had been done to anyone and Geoff reports the
model is highly repairable. Hopefully no loss to the VARMS image either. Both families knew of
aeromodellers operating at Brigg's Field and except for the occasional 1:1 dropping in, seemed to
think of them as being relatively harmless, well behaved citizens. Finally, guess who the helpful
lady was! No less than Neil McLeod's (club member & past Editor) cousin, would you believe!
Oddly enough too, Neil had been the first non-spectator to be told of the model's disappearance.
(do I hear the theme to The Twilight Zone playing in the back of my head... ...Ed). And, as for the
choice of house to drop into, there's nothing like keeping things in the flying community, is there?
October 2000 - State Slope Championships continues (not held 1999) as an Aerobatics only
competition.
November 19th 2000 - VARMS again hosts an Open Day under the same format as the previous
year, i.e. not being a top shelf display, but rather all types of flying activities involving ONLY club
members displaying their models and associated talents.